Shock of the New

“Shock of the New was the title of a book written many years ago by Robert Hughes. The few lines of that book I never forgot was Mr. Hughes’ questioning as to where was the British Picasso, and felt that World War I had somehow eliminated the possibility of producing a Picasso from the UK. Mr. Hughes showed how new art can shock at the time it is produced. History has a way of highlighting the genius of paradigm changing artists with an everlasting effect on our artists landscape.

At the same time this is happening on a small scale with a handful of artists, most art and artists are fading into the noise over time. This Shock of the New is continually changing. How would you have felt to be in New York in 1950’s when the abstract expressionists are marching into power and you were still clinging to academic figurative style of painting, or a 1960’s pop artist, when painting died in the 1980’s? I remember Art in America in the 1980’s claiming on the cover “Is Painting Dead?” as a prelude to trying to understand the new wave of performance art. I was working with American Performance Artist, Chris Burden at the time, and felt some vindication, or at least I was at the right place at the right time, for the first time in my life.

Andy Warhol | Marilyn Monroe (II.22) | Puccio Fine Art

Helmut Newton | Bergstrom, Paris | Opus

Fast forward to 2014 where there are more art fairs and gallery openings that one can even keep track of, with each one having a great number of artists. As I attend these events, I am surprised that every young artist is trying so hard to shock us, that they somehow have missed the point of becoming an artist in the first place. Great art by great artists, overtime, shocked us, as the end product of the work itself, not by the artist trying to shock us.

William Anastasi | A Painting of a Soup Can | David Lawrence Gallery

Salvador Dali | Puzzle of Life | Gregg Shienbaum Fine Art

Thus I have selected the prints currently listed on Printed-Editions that I feel do hold up over time as to being shocking when created and shocking today.”

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